Sunrise in the Park

I hauled my butt out of bed this morning, and I went bicycling at dawn in Forest Park. Against my will, Papa! Against my will, Papa! Even though it was 81 °F at five this morning, it still felt quite comfortable. The reason for this is that even though the temperature is running higher than normal, the humidity is running way lower than normal. It is a so-called dry heat. Sitting here at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, we are drying up this summer. We’re looking at a severe drought this summer. Southern Illinois is under a fire alert now. That means that the corn crop that is figuratively burning up this summer is in danger of literally doing so. As I am writing the mercury is at 108 °F, but interestingly the heat index is at 104 °F. I’ve never seen that before. Because it is so dry, I am watering daily, just to keep the plants alive. I’m wondering now, which will be higher, my electric bill or my water bill.

After my pre-work bike ride, I showered, changed and then launched towards work. As is my want, I stopped at Starbucks on the way into work. Immediately before me in line today was a woman who I’ll refer to as sweaty Starbucks woman. She had been running and must have timed her run to peak just before she hit Starbucks. Even though she was just before me in line, I kept my distance from her. Maybe her heat wasn’t as dry as mine, because she wasn’t glowing, she wasn’t perspiring, she wasn’t even just sweating, and she was totally covered in sweat. I know that I’m pearl clutching about this incident, but would a little bit of a cool-down have killed her before she entered the coffee shop? To add insult to injury, by the time that I was back in my car, she had pressed the cross walk button and froze me with a pair of ‘No Right Turn’ lights, as she sauntered back home, just across Hanley. Anne thinks that I’m not pearl clutching on this subject, but being down right hypocritical, because we have cleared out a few restaurant sections in our day too.

The weather might be front page news here in Saint Louis, but nationally the big news was today’s Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. Obama-care was declared constitutional or at least good enough. The law was upheld. Wailing and gnashing of teeth erupted immediately from the Repugs after this SCOTUS decision. To paraphrase our Dave, the SCOTUS has thrown the conservatives under the WHAM-bulance, but don’t worry, it’s covered. A doff of the hat to those that are not Democrats, I offer up the following quote from Senator [Ayn] Rand Paul, ideological idiot and neo-fascist:

“Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so. The whole thing [ACA] remains unconstitutional… While the court may have erroneously come to the conclusion that the law is allowable, it certainly does nothing to make this mandate or government takeover of our health care right.”

I wonder if Senator Paul could ever pass a simple citizenship test. Pardon me, but I have to enjoy a chortle or two now. About the Repug pushback, since the ACA is supposed to cut the Federal deficit how are they going to pay for its repeal? I’ll close with my paraphrasing of a Nancy Pelosi tweet: Ted Kennedy, Rest-in-Peace.